Q 01/05

In which present-day New York borough was Mae West born in 1893?

A) Brooklyn

B) Queens

C) Manhattan

D) The Bronx

Answer · why

A) Brooklyn

Brooklyn was still a city in its own right when she was born and merged into New York only in 1898, so she began life as a Brooklynite rather than a N...

Q 02/05

What was Mae West's real first and middle name?

A) Mary Jane

B) Margaret Jane

C) Mabel Jane

D) Martha Jane

Answer · why

A) Mary Jane

Mary Jane West, called Mae from childhood, kept her age vague: Hollywood's new screen siren of 1932 was in fact almost 40 when she made her first film...

Q 03/05

What had Mae West's father, 'Battlin' Jack' West, been before he became a special policeman?

A) Prizefighter

B) Wrestler

C) Soldier

D) Circus strongman

Answer · why

A) Prizefighter

Prizefighter Jack West boxed only now and then; once he left the ring he kept order for hire and later opened his own private detective agency.

Q 04/05

Under what stage name did Mae West perform as a child?

A) Sugar Mae

B) Little Mae

C) Baby Mae

D) Miss Mayme

Answer · why

C) Baby Mae

Baby Mae won first prize at a local amateur night singing 'Movin' Day', and she was soon playing child parts with a professional stock company.

Q 05/05

In I'm No Angel, what does Mae West tell her maid Beulah to peel for her?

A) A peach

B) An orange

C) A grape

D) A banana

Answer · why

C) A grape

A grape: 'Beulah, peel me a grape', drawled at her maid, became one of the most imitated catchphrases of the 1930s, shorthand for a life of lazy luxur...